The judges of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2007 have announced this year’s six shortlisted novels.
The six titles shortlisted are:
* Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)
* The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
* The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
* Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
* On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
* Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)
The shortlist of six was announced today at a press conference at Man Group plc in London. Following the meeting, Howard Davies, Chair of Judges commented:
“Selecting a shortlist this year from what was widely seen as an exciting longlist was a tough challenge. We hope the choices we have made after passionate and careful consideration, will attract wide interest.”
Ian McEwan’s name on the shortlist will not surprise many with On Chesil Beach being the bookies’ favourite since the longlist was announced last month.
William Hill only just slashed its odds yesterday on New Zealander Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip from 20/1 to 5/1 following a surge on betting and online sales through Amazon.
Pakistani Mohsin Hamid is the youngest author on the shortlist at only 35.
The winner will be announced on 16 October 2007.
